A Whole New World
by Taz1995
Summary: Dani knew she was uncoordinated. That's why she wasn't exactly surprised when she fell down the stairs at her house, knocking herself unconscious. But she was surprised to find that, upon waking up, she was no longer at home, or even in her own world. Kili/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Good God, I loved my bed.

Big, soft and warm, it always did the job well. Waking up that morning, the sun shining, the birds singing, it was perfect. Too bad I didn't see it at the time.

My alarm was sounding and I groaned as I turned it off. The thought of getting out of bed was almost too much to bare. I had stayed up until the early hours of the morning reading and was definitely regretting it now.

Despite the fact that I knew I needed to get up for school, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Snuggling back into the doona, my last thought before I drifted to sleep was 'Surely a few more minutes wouldn't hurt'.

* * *

"Goddammit!" I screamed as I threw the covers off. My small digital clock read 8:42am. My first class was at 9:00 and it took at least ten minutes to drive to the university. Jumping out of bed, I sprinted to the dresser and flung open the top drawer. I quickly gathered up some clothes, taking off my pyjamas as I went. In about a minute I was wearing my usual blue jeans and black hoodie and ran to the bathroom.

There was no time for showering of course, so I splashed my face and brushed my teeth as fast as I could. Realising there was nothing I could do to my unruly brown curls, I pulled them back with a hair tie. Not bothering with makeup, I quickly left the room.

"Bag, bag, where's my bag?" I muttered to myself as I looked around the room. It had to be here somewhere, I wouldn't have left it anywhere else in the house. Too bad my room was so messy there was no telling where it was.

Sighing in aggravation, I started to pick up clothing and books to see if my bag was underneath them. Throwing my belongings around the room, I desperately tried to find my bag. Glancing at the clock, I noticed it was now 8:48.

"Shit!" I cried as I searched even harder. I was just about ready to tear my hair out when I heard a noise.

_Don't listen to a word I say_

_Hey!_

_The screams all sound the same_

_Hey!_

With a gasp of recognition, I leapt up from my junk pile and ran around the room trying to find the source of the song. It was the ringtone for my mobile and I definitely knew that my phone was in my bag. Realising that the noise was coming from my bed, or more specifically under it, I dashed to the bed only to end up face planting on the floor. I looked back and cursed as I realised I had tripped over a forgotten box of DVDs.

Praying that none of the DVDs had broken, I jerked up and crawled the last metre to the bed. Throwing my arm under the bed, I hooked my fingers around the strap of my bag and pulled it out. I grabbed my phone out and answered.

"Dani! Finally! Where are you? Class is about to start!" My best friend, Cassie, shrieked into the phone.

"I know, I know, I slept in," I replied, checking that everything I needed was in my bag. Tears almost fell from my hazel eyes as I realised my wallet wasn't there. Falling to my stomach, I searched under the bed for my little blue wallet.

"You always do this Dani!" Cassie cried. "You're gonna leave me alone in English? Again?"

"I'm sorry, Cass." I sighed as I found my wallet. Standing up from the floor, I yelped as I hit my head on the edge of the bed. Standing up, I rubbed my head as I looked around for my converses.

"…Did you just fall over again?"

"No. I hit my head." I sulked. My frown shifted into a grin when I saw the toe of my red converse from under a jacket.

"You really need to work on your coordination." Cassie deadpanned, before seemingly remembering the situation. "Now hurry up! I need you here!"

"Maybe you could just talk to someone else there. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be late." I stated, seeing 8:54 on the clock. I picked up my shoes and started pulling them on.

"But Dani," Cassie whined. "_You're_ my best friend, not any of the other losers in that class."

I rolled my eyes, but smiled. Cassie and I had been best friends since we were six. She had yelled at one of the boys in our class after he had purposely knocked over my sandcastle. We had never even spoken to each other before when she stood up for me and I was so in awe of this fiery, red haired girl that we instantly became friends. We had been inseparable ever since, going to the same schools and now the same university.

She was more than my best friend. She was the sister I never had.

"It doesn't matter if you're five minutes late, you know? I'll just wait outside for you, I don't care if I'm late." She said firmly.

"Ok, ok, I'll be there as quick as I can. I'm just leaving the house now." But God was I hungry! There was no time for breakfast, so I quickly left the room before running down the stairs.

"Make sure you eat something, you know what happens when you get hungry." I thought back to the last time I had been late to class and left without breakfast. I couldn't focus at all and spent the whole time complaining to Cass about my hunger. She would kill me if that happened again.

Groaning, I detoured to the kitchen. The fruit bowl was on the bench, so I quickly grabbed an apple and took a bite. Moving to the front door, I saw a glimpse of the family photo on the wall. Mum, Dad and me. No siblings, no pets, just me. Mum always said that I was all they ever wanted or needed. Mum was a nurse at the local hospital and Dad was a fire-fighter. They had the typical love story. Meeting through mutual friends, falling in love, getting married, starting a family. It wasn't until I was born that this love story changed. There was a lot of trouble with the pregnancy, and so when I was born it almost killed Mum. They couldn't have any children after me.

They always told me that was ok. But I always wondered if it really was.

"Have you remembered your keys?" Cassie's voice cut into my thoughts. My eyes widened as I searched through my bag. No keys.

"Crap!" I cried as I ran back up the stairs. Running back into my room, the clock reading 8:57, I found my keys on my bedside table.

"Danielle Evers, did you almost leave the house without keys?" Cassie's laughing voice came through the phone.

"…Maybe."

"You're an idiot."

Running through the doorway, keys in hand, I rushed through the house. I reached the stairs and bounded down them two at a time.

Big mistake.

I was about halfway down the stairs when my foot went a bit too far. Gravity, my arch enemy, caused me to fall, my head moving closer and closer to the wooden stairs. Everything happened so fast that I had no time to scream, let alone try and keep myself upright. My body tumbled down and I felt the pain of every step I hit on the way down.

The pain was unbearable as I finally stopped falling. I could feel my lungs filling with blood as my head was pounding. My vision started to fade and the last thing I heard before the darkness overtook me was Cassie's voice screaming my name.

* * *

**Hi everyone! Thank you for reading my first chapter! I'm not exactly the greatest writer in the world, so any feedback (even criticism) is definitely welcome!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"…Have you got a cheese knife?"

"Cheese knife? He eats it by the block!"

I groaned as I sluggishly awoke to loud male voices. I was sitting on something soft, an armchair maybe? It took me a moment to realise that the last thing I remembered was falling down the stairs. 'Of _course_ I would fall down the stairs', I thought to myself. That was when I really noticed the voices.

My eyes flew open and I looked around wildly. I had absolutely no idea where I was and my head was spinning. I was in a house that definitely wasn't my own, with what seemed to be a bunch of bearded men around a table in the next room and a dull ache in my head that really didn't help the matter. I stared wide eyed at the men.

There was so many of them! Heaps of men with different coloured beards and rather large noses and ears. They were also wearing what I would say were some of the weirdest clothes I'd ever seen. There was also a flustered looking man with curly brown hair and… pointy ears? Lastly, there was a very tall, very old man dressed in what seemed to be long grey robes and he had a long grey beard too. He was practically a grey giant. I was speechless and stared at them all in bewilderment.

Until dark brown eyes locked with mine.

This man was different to the others. He had no beard, only stubble and his nose and ears seemed to be in normal proportion to his body. He was also very, very good looking. I swear he made all the 'good looking' guys at my university look like monkeys, despite his almost dirty rugged looks.

But the best thing about this guy was his smile. The one that was steadily growing on his face. It was contagious, it had to be, as I felt my own mouth curl up in response. This was a very bad situation, I should not be smiling!

"You're awake!" His voice rang out, starting the others into silence. In less than a second the rest of the men turned towards me in curiosity. My smile disappeared as I looked at them all with unease.

There was a moment of stunned silence before they all started speaking at once.

"Hello there!"

"How are you?"

"What's your name?"

"Do you want some food?"

It was becoming too much. The noise, the confusion, the head ache, it was all too much. My breathing became heavier and before I knew it, everything merged together to form a big ball of hysteria.

"SHUT IT!" I screamed at them, standing up. They were instantly silent. "Where the _hell _am I? How did I get here? Who are you people? AND WHY IS THERE AN AXE IN YOUR HEAD?" I hadn't planned on saying that last one, but I guess it just came out after seeing the dark haired man with the weapon sticking out of his forehead.

Now the men stared at me in bewilderment. There was more silence. It seemed no one was ready to break it until the grey giant stepped forward.

"You are in the home of Bilbo Baggins of the Shire, my dear," The giant explained. "You are here because I found you unconscious on the road nearby, so I brought you here with me. I am Gandalf the Grey and these are the dwarves Dwalin, Balin, Bifur, Bombur, Bofur, Oin, Gloin, Fili, Kili, Ori, Dori and Nori. And Bifur here has an axe in his head due to an unfortunate incident that left it there." He explained all this so calmly that I almost began feeling calm myself. Almost. The long list of names only confused me more.

Staring at the 'dwarves', I could only reply to Gandalf's words with a feeble "Ok…" until I froze. Some of those names, they were familiar. Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, Kili, Fili, I knew them somehow. I stifled a gasp as I realised.

They were fictional characters.

Unfortunately for me, I had never read any of these books or watched the movies. I only knew them because Cassie had been talking about wanting to see _The Hobbit _for weeks. She had been especially excited to see Kili and Fili, claiming they were the 'hot dwarves'.

This was either a _very _elaborate prank, or I had gone insane.

Realising Cassie was my only real friend and even _she_ wouldn't do this, I was left with the conclusion that I was insane.

But before I could freak out about that, Gandalf had spoken again. "I think we're all curious to know what a young dwarf woman was doing in the Shire in the first place. Could you please explain?"

"I'm not that short," I mumbled in reply. "Just because you're a giant…"

Now the others were even more confused.

"But you are a dwarf woman!" A dwarf with reddish brown hair and a big beard exclaimed. "We know our own kind, Lassie."

"But I'm not!"

"You're a very strange dwarf woman, though. I've never seen clothes like that before, and you've got no beard, either!" A grey haired dwarf stated.

"Of course I don't have a beard!"

"I think your clothes are a bit too big for you too." Another dwarf said.

I looked down at my clothes and with a cry of shock, realised he was right. The jeans were lucky they hadn't fallen off and the hoodie was so big it covered my knees.

"That doesn't make sense…" I whispered.

"This is a mystery, indeed." Gandalf commented. Staring at me thoughtfully, he eventually said "Why don't we go somewhere private so we can talk."

After I nodded, the shorter, curly haired man who I realised was Bilbo, led us to another room while the dwarves watched us go. I was glad that I could talk with just Gandalf. He was the big wizard guy, so maybe he would know what was going on.

Sitting on a couple of chairs, Gandalf motioned to me. "Tell me your story, my dear."

And so I did. I told him about sleeping in, about falling down the stairs and about how I was sure I wasn't a dwarf. Gandalf didn't comment throughout my story, only nodded carefully.

"And the worst part is," I gulped. "None of you are supposed to be real. Your story is a book where I come from, a fictional book. So really, the only explanation for this happening is…"

"I assure you, you have not lost your mind," Gandalf asserted. "There must be a reason for your being here and becoming a dwarf, even if we do not see it yet. That is why I believe you should accompany us on our quest."

"What quest?" I asked, apprehensively.

"Myself, the dwarves and hopefully Master Baggins, will be travelling to the Lonely Mountain under the leadership of Thorin Oakenshield to take back the dwarves' kingdom from the dragon Smaug." Gandalf matter-of-factly replied.

"A dragon."

"Yes."

"You want me to come with you to fight a dragon."

"That is correct."

"But how can I help you?" I cried. "I'm useless! I can't do anything that could help you on this thing, I never even read the books!"

"At this point, I don't know how to reply to that. But I believe it was the Valar who brought you here and they would not do something like that lightly. Now, what do you know of dwarves?"

"Absolutely nothing. I have no clue why I would be changed to a dwarf when coming here. I mean, it just doesn't make sense, you know?"

Gandalf hummed in thought. "Maybe some aspects of your personality were closer to that of dwarves than men. Maybe we will find out the reason in time. But for now, you should eat. And if you don't mind me asking, what is your name, my dear?"

Blushing because I completely forgot to tell the poor man my name, I replied "Danielle Evers. But most people call me Dani."

"Well then Miss Evers," Gandalf rose, smiling. "Shall we join the rest of your kin?"

"But what will we tell them? About me?"

"Leave that to me."

* * *

I have to admit, Gandalf did handle it all rather well. The dwarves all had many questions, but Gandalf simply told them that yes, I was a female dwarf, yes, I had no beard (thank God!) and that I did not know how I arrived in the Shire. He also told them that I didn't know much about my own kind, much less dwarven customs, which I think was a subtle way of saying 'don't be offended if she says something wrong'.

Which was good, I guess.

After the explanation, the dwarves went back to their food. Which made me pretty happy considering I really wanted some of that food. I had only eaten a few bites of that apple before being transported in a fictional world, so I was pretty hungry by now.

I awkwardly looked around the room for a place to sit. There were so many dwarves in such a small room and they looked close, like a family. It felt weird to just walk in on that. I thought about just grabbing something and standing in the corner, until the reddish brown haired dwarf from earlier looked up and noticed me.

Pulling a chair out of nowhere he moved across and sat it next to him. "Sit down, Lass."

With a small smile, I sat down next to him. On my other side was one of the young dwarves. He had brown hair and a funny looking beard that was braided into two parts. He gave me a shy smile and said "I'm Ori."

"Nice to meet you Ori, I'm Dani." I smiled.

"That's Gloin sitting on your other side." I turned to Gloin and he gave me a grunt in greeting. "Would you like a plate, Lady Dani?" Ori asked politely.

"Yes, thank you and please, lose the 'Lady'. It's just Dani." Ori looked a little surprised, but nodded and handed me a plate. I quickly filled it with what I could grab from the table. Food seemed to disappear very quickly around the dwarves, especially around the big one with the orange hair.

After taking a few bites of the surprisingly delicious food, I tapped Ori on the shoulder and asked quietly, "Could you maybe tell me everyone's names? I'll introduce myself properly later, but for now…"

"Sure Dani!" Ori said happily. "Well on this side of me are my older brothers Dori and Nori." At the sound of their names, the dwarves looked over at me and smiled. "Then we have Oin," A grey haired dwarf that looked a little like Gloin.

"Bifur," The one with the axe in his head.

"Balin," The oldest looking dwarf with white hair.

"Bombur," The big one with the orange hair and long braided beard.

"Fili and Kili," The blonde with the braided moustache was Fili and the good looking one with the dark hair and stubble was Kili.

"Bofur," A dark haired dwarf with a funny looking hat.

"And the last one is Dwalin". Dwalin was a very big dwarf with a bald head and dark beard.

"And who's Thorin?" I asked.

"Thorin is our king," Nori said leaning across his younger brother. "He has not arrived yet, but he will be here soon."

Trying as best as I could to commit the names and faces to memory, I smiled and thanked both Ori and Nori. Taking another bite of a bread roll, I just looked around and watched the dwarves interact. They really were like a family and that wasn't counting all the pairs and three's of brothers. They just interacted with each other easily, like they were born to do it. And the thing is, I wanted to be a part of it. I was an only child, I didn't have a big family. But at this moment, I wished I had.

* * *

After eating (and a burping contest which Ori won), Bilbo approached and asked if I wanted to borrow some clothes, considering I couldn't exactly keep wearing mine. Thanking him, I followed to another room where he had a pair of brown pants and a black shirt laid out. Thanking him a second time, he left me alone so I could get dressed.

Once I was done, I realised that my shoes were still too big. After a quick scan of the room, I realised that Bilbo didn't have any shoes at all. 'What kind of person doesn't have shoes?' I wondered.

Leaving the room, I was going to head back to the dining room when I noticed Ori approach Bilbo and ask what to do with his plate. Silently agreeing with him, I was going to grab my plate when a white shape flew past my face. With a shriek, I jumped back, only to trip over my own feet and fall on my butt.

There were a couple of laughs, so I looked up to see the young dwarves, Kili and Fili, throwing plates around. Kili looked over at me and grinned like he had just seen something very amusing. Realising he and his brother were laughing at my fall, I huffed and got up, moving over to the armchair I had been in at the beginning of the night.

I soon forgot my embarrassment as I watched the dwarves spontaneously burst into song. It was impressive that they all knew the words to a song they had seemingly made up, but still, bursting into song? Isn't that a bit too _Glee _for dwarves?

Nonetheless, I laughed as I listened to the song.

_Blunt the knives and bent the forks!  
Smash the bottles and burn the corks!  
Chip the glasses and crack the plates!  
That's what Bilbo Baggins hates-_

_Cut the cloth and tread on the fat!_  
_Leave the bones on the bedroom mat!_  
_Pour the milk on the pantry floor!_  
_Splash the wine on every door!_

_Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl;_  
_Pound them up with a thumping pole;_  
_And when you've finished, if any are whole,_  
_Send them down the hall to roll!_

_That's what Bilbo Baggins hates!_

Plates, cups, bowls, all sorts of things were flying around the room as the dwarves threw them to each other. I couldn't believe nothing was broken! Cups were being bounced off shoulders and elbows, plates were being thrown at people's backs, yet I never heard anything break! Some dwarves caught things without even looking!

And throughout all of this, Bombur stayed seated, continuing to eat. Balin also stayed seated, but still joined in, hitting tableware to Fili behind him. There was even an instrumental part to them song, with Bofur playing a flute he had pulled out of thin air, Oin blowing into a teapot and Dori hitting the table like a bongo drum.

It was pure chaos. And it was hilarious.

My stomach was hurting from laughing so much, but I just couldn't stop. It was probably the most crazy and chaotic thing I have ever seen. Poor Bilbo was just about having a fit, but I was laughing too much to feel too sympathetic for him.

Wiping tears from my eyes, I looked up after the song was over to find that all the tableware was clean and stacked up in the middle of the table. My eyebrows were raised and I had to admit, I was very impressed. Bilbo just seemed to be incredibly relieved.

An loud banging noise stopped the theatrics almost immediately. All the dwarves turned to the front door in anticipation, so I followed suit.

"He's here." Gandalf stated before heading to the door.

* * *

**Sorry for leaving it there! No Thorin until the next chapter!  
**

**Wow! Thank you guys so much for the reviews/alerts/favourites! I was so excited every time I got an email telling me! I'm not sure about this chapter, so let me know what you think! I'm going away in a few days, so hopefully I can have the next chapter done before then.  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The dwarves all shot up and rushed to the door. There was so many of them moving so quickly that I found myself being pulled along with them. I was just about to reach the next room when a hard body knocked into my shoulder. With a yelp, I fell to the side, my legs becoming tangled.

I closed my eyes in the expectation of hitting the ground, but that's not what happened. Two arms grabbed hold of my shoulders and steadied me. Opening my eyes, I followed the hands to see that they belonged to Kili, one of the 'hot dwarves'.

"Are you alright, Milady?" He was grinning again. I swear that's all he ever did, every time I looked at him he was smiling.

That was when I realised I had spent a little too long staring at him and still hadn't answered him. By now he had let go of my shoulders and, while still smiling, was giving me a funny look.

"I'm fine!" I blurted out, blushing. "I just… fall over a lot."

"I've noticed." He smirked.

But before we could talk more, there was still the matter of the knock on the door. Looking away from Kili, I moved closer to the doorway when it opened. Eager to get a glimpse at who I believed was Thorin, I stood on my tip toes and tried to see around Bofur.

The dwarf who had walked in was tall by dwarf standards and I could tell that I would be lucky to come up to his shoulder if I stood next to him. He had long dark hair and a beard that had strands of grey in it. He had sharp blue eyes and I was immediately intimidated by him.

But despite that he had the bearing of a leader.

"Gandalf," He said in his deep voice. "I thought you said this place would be easy to find. I lost my way- _twice_. I would not have been able to find it if it wasn't for the mark on the door."

"Mark? There's no mark on the door!" Bilbo exclaimed. "I just had it painted last week!" He was quite upset at the idea that his door had been marked, more than most would be.

"There is a mark, I put it there myself." Gandalf revealed. "Now allow me to introduce you to the leader of our company, Thorin Oakenshield."

"So, this is the hobbit." Thorin said with a judging eye. "He looks more like a grocer than a burglar." The dwarves all laughed in response while Bilbo looked a bit uncomfortable. I felt a pang of sympathy for Bilbo, but before I could comfort him Gandalf had motioned me forward.

"And this is Miss Danielle Evers." Gandalf introduced. Getting the feeling that I should be polite to this guy, I took a step forward and held out my hand.

"Just call me Dani."

Thorin raised an eyebrow. "And why are you here?"

"To join you on your quest." I said, dropping my hand out of awkwardness. Thorin stared at me in disbelief until I couldn't take it anymore. "Gandalf told me to!" I blurted out.

Thorin turned his gaze to Gandalf. "And why would a she-dwarf be joining us? Shouldn't she be with the rest of our people?"

"I believe she may be of use to us."

Thorin grunted before turning away and heading to the dining room. The dwarves, Bilbo, Gandalf and I followed.

Gathered around the table, Thorin began to talk of his meeting with other dwarves, including one named Dain who was apparently not joining them. Eventually Bilbo asked about the quest and a map was pulled out.

The map contained drawings of the Lonely Mountain, Erebor and a red dragon. It took me a few minutes of listening, but I managed to gather that Erebor was the dwarf kingdom, it was located below the Lonely Mountain and Smaug was a red coloured dragon. I sat back with a self-satisfied smile after working it all out until I realised I should probably be listening a bit more.

"We are warriors." Fili said passionately. "All of us."

"And you are forgetting we have a wizard among us." Kili remarked fervidly. "He must have killed hundreds of dragons in his day! Haven't you Gandalf?"

"How many dragons have you slain?" Dori asked as everyone turned to Gandalf. The wizard in question looked a little uncomfortable and maybe a little guilty.

By this point all the dwarves began speaking at once, talking over each other. I just kept quiet and hoped I wouldn't be involved in the arguing. Poor Bilbo was trying to calm them all to protect his table from their banging fists.

"Enough!" Thorin shouted, standing up. The dwarves were silenced immediately. He then went on to give a speech to everyone about taking back their home and how others must have seen the signs.

Whatever that meant.

The dwarves were all cheering until Balin decided to shout over the din, "The gate has been sealed! There is no way inside the mountain!"

The dwarves stopped their cheering then and looked a bit despondent. It was then that Gandalf revealed a key that Thorin's father, Thrain had given him. He gave it to Thorin, who looked at it in awe.

"If there is a key," Fili marvelled, "then there must be a door."

I struggled to stop myself from bursting out laughing, which resulted in a little squeak. A few of the dwarves near me gave me a curious look but I just shook my head.

'If only he had said _lock_' I thought.

The conversation then moved to Bilbo and his ability to be a 'burglar' for the dwarves. Bilbo, of course, was quite flustered and denied ever being a burglar.

After Bilbo's panicked explanation of never stealing a thing in his life, Thorin turned to me. "And you, girl, what can you do?"

Eyes widening at the attention, I stammered, "I, uh… What do you mean?"

"Well, can you fight?" Thorin demanded.

"Well, no-"

"Have you ever even held a weapon?" Dwalin asked.

"No, but-"

"Do you have _any _skills that could help us on this quest?" Thorin asked, seeming annoyed now.

"YES!" I blurted out. The dwarves stared, waiting for an explanation. "My- my mum. She's a nurse. I know some medical stuff, I could, you know, help with that."

I felt a little ashamed of how scared and timid I was being, but Thorin was just so powerful and, in a way, threatening that I just couldn't help it.

"We could use a medic." Balin said to Thorin. I smiled at him, glad that someone was on my side. Thorin grumbled, but eventually nodded. I sighed in relief.

"You will both need to sign this contract." Thorin said, while Balin handed Bilbo the very long piece of paper. "I will not take responsibility for any injuries you may acquire."

I let Bilbo read the contract. I didn't have all that much of a choice anyway, I was in a different world and this was my best option. Well, according to Gandalf at least. Bilbo muttered as he read through the contract.

"Laceration… evisceration… _incineration?" _He read.

"Oh, aye. He'll melt the flesh off your bones in the blink of an eye." Bofur described.

Bilbo went rather pale, before putting his hands on his hips and taking deep breaths. I felt rather the same to be honest.

"Think furnace, with wings." Bofur continued.

Feeling sick to my stomach, I just hoped that Bofur would stop talking. Unfortunately, he did not.

"Flash of light. Searing pain. Then poof! You're nothing more than a pile of ash."

Despite the feeling that I was going to throw up, I looked at Bilbo. Taking a few more breaths, he eventually stood up and sighed, seeming like he was feeling a bit better. With a mumbled, "nope" he promptly fainted.

Taking another breath to settle my stomach, I got up to help some of the other dwarves put him into my armchair. It turns out the armchair I had been using was Bilbo's favourite or something, meaning I just lost my seat.

Heading back to the dining room, I grabbed the contract and searched for something to write with. Balin, witnessing my dilemma, passed me a quill and a pot of ink.

'This is so cool' I thought as I wrote with the feather. I'd never have thought I would sign a dwarven contract using a quill! It was all too surreal.

Passing the contract to Balin, I smiled and decided to find another comfy chair to do my 'people watching'. Or 'dwarf watching', more like.

Noticing that most of the chairs were occupied, I decided to sit on the floor while I leaned against the wall. I usually found that to be quite comfortable and this was no exception. The dwarves were in small groups and were conversing on topics I didn't really understand. Watching them, I started to notice some things.

Ori, the youngest, was shy but also friendly, as he gave me a small smile from across the room. I liked Ori. His brothers also seemed to be nice enough, but they were definitely protective of their little brother. Every now and then their eyes would flicker to him across the room, just to make sure he was alright.

Bifur didn't really talk and it took me a moment to come to the conclusion that he probably can't talk. The axe in his head could have easily hit the part of the brain that controls speech. His cousin Bofur seemed to do most of the talking for him. Bombur helped, but he seemed a bit more occupied with the food that he was _still_ eating.

I glanced at Thorin to see he still didn't look happy. I thought back to what I had told him and hoped I knew enough medical related knowledge to help. Thinking back through all of my mum's teachings made me stop to think of her in general.

'How could I have completely forgotten my family?' I thought in disgust. With everything that was going on, I hadn't thought of Mum and Dad once. Or Cassie for that matter.

Poor Cassie. She had to hear me fall. What if the fall killed me? What if that's why I'm here now? Cass had to listen as I died.

And my parents might have lost their only child. I can't even begin to think how that would feel, to lose a child. For their sakes I hoped I wasn't dead.

'Maybe this is all happening in my head, while I'm unconscious' I pondered. 'Maybe I'm in a coma, maybe once this quest is done I'll wake up at home to find almost no time has gone by'.

It was a long shot, but it was all I had to hold onto.

"Why do you look so sad?" A voice said from above me.

I looked up to see Kili, with his brother standing next to him. They were both looking at me in expectancy.

"It's nothing, I'm fine." I muttered.

Both brothers looked at each other.

"Are you homesick?" Fili asked.

"How did you…"

"You look a bit like some of the others do when they think of Erebor." Kili explained.

"Oh."

"Tell us about your home. Or your family." Kili insisted. "It might make you feel better."

With a soft smile, I told them of my parents. My mum, soft spoken but a stickler for health and safety. She was always trying to make sure I never got sick or hurt and if I did, she would always take care of it. And she would make me feel like I was safe and I was going to be ok, no matter what.

My dad acted like a gruff, grumpy man all the time. He grunted and he had loud opinions on everything. But underneath it all he could be a huge softy. According to Mum and the photos I could find, when I was a baby he was practically besotted with me. He was more protective than Mum sometimes, making sure I wouldn't get hurt and he always wanted to hold me.

I missed my parents.

Then I told them of Cassie. My best friend. I told them about how she was always there for me. She could be a bit self-absorbed sometimes, but if I really needed her she was always able to put me first. After a couple of years of us being friends, the other kids soon learned that they should never mess with her and by extension, me. If anyone ever said anything mean to me, Cassie was there, standing up for me.

We may not have been completely similar or have all the same interests, but I felt more comfortable with her than anyone. She was my sister, even if not by blood.

When I was finished, the brothers both smiled and Fili said, "They sound like good people."

"They are." I agreed.

There was a pause before we heard a noise from the other room. It was a low humming, which slowly gained more volume as others joined in.

"Come on." Kili said, holding out a hand.

I took it and he lifted me up easily. The three of us then headed into the next room where the other dwarves were gathering.

Faces lit by the fire, the dwarves began to sing. This was very different to the last song. While the last song was fun and happy, this one was the opposite. It was serious and solemn.

_Far over the Misty Mountains cold,_

_To dungeons deep and caverns old,_

_We must away, ere break of day,_

_To find our long-forgotten gold._

_The pines were roaring on the heights,_

_The wind was moaning in the night,_

_The fire was red, it flaming spread,_

_The trees like torches blazed __with light._

The song really touched me in a way that I didn't expect it to. These dwarves had lost their home and I had been pulled away from mine. You could hear the emotions in the song, you could feel them. They wanted their home back so badly that it made me want to get it back too.

I had to help them in any way I could.

* * *

**Thanks for the reviews/alerts/favourites! I got the chapter out before going away! Yay! **

**So yeah, I'm going away for about a week and I'm not going to be able to update until I get back. Sorry!  
**

**By the way, did anyone catch the reference? Let me know! :)  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The first thing I woke to that morning was a pain in my neck. I had slept in Bilbo's armchair that night, as he had his own bed to sleep in. I was quite lucky that I had slept here to be honest, it could have been much worse in the morning if I had slept in one of the wooden chairs.

But what I didn't think of at the time was that I could have slept on the floor. Maybe I wouldn't have had any pain if I had done that.

Once awake, I realised that I had woken a lot earlier in the morning than I usually did. The sun was barely coming through the windows, indicating that it was early morning. I think I could hear a bird singing outside, that is over the noise of the dwarves.

To be fair, they were really trying to be quiet. I couldn't see Bilbo anywhere, him having gone to bed after telling us that he wasn't joining us on the quest. The dwarves were obviously making an effort to make as little noise as possible while they cleaned up so that he could sleep. But no matter what they did, they were still making noise.

Things were being dropped or knocked over, some dwarves kept tripping over things and others couldn't help but talk and laugh amongst themselves.

I don't know how Bilbo hadn't woken up yet, to be honest.

A body suddenly fell in front of me, causing me to gasp and jump back into the chair. Wide eyed, I leaned forward a little to see who it was.

Kili's head popped up, looking around wildly. Upon noticing me, he gave me a grin.

"My apologies for startling you, milady." He said before jumping up.

"Dani. Call me Dani."

"Well then my apologies, Dani." He replied before looking around the room. I looked around too and noticed Fili standing at the other end of the room, smirking at us.

"Fili!" Kili shouted, running off. "Why did you push me?"

Staring after him, I could only shake my head in confusion.

Forgetting about the young brothers, I stood up and moved to help Bofur rearrange the chairs. He smiled at me and said, "Good morning Miss Dani."

"Good morning Bofur."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, alright I guess. Not too bad. Now do you need some help with this?"

He nodded and told me where the chairs were meant to go. Doing as he said, we soon had the chairs in their right place.

"Do you know if anyone else needs my help?" I asked him.

"Hmm." He thought for a second. "Well, Kili and Fili are about to be sent out to prepare the ponies. You could help them with that. They're in the next room."

I smiled. "Ok, thanks Bofur!"

Moving to the next room, I found Kili and Fili nodding to Thorin before they started to move to the door. Moving quicker, I rushed to cut them off before they left.

"Wait!" I cried, as they stared at me in surprise. "I can help you with the ponies… You know, if you need some help, that is…"

"That would be great, thank you Dani." Kili said, smiling again. I smiled back.

"But we will not have time to come back before we leave the Shire, so if there is anything you need, you need to get it now." Fili explained.

"I don't have anything." I said softly.

The brothers gave me a soft, sad smile, before Fili said, "Well then let's go. Thorin wants to leave as soon as possible."

We headed outside, where the sky was lit up in hues of orange and pink. I had never been up this early before, so I had never seen a sunrise. While I missed the main part of the sunrise, I was still in awe of the colours of the sky. It was beautiful.

The sound of the door shutting behind me made me jump and spin around. Now I was looking at Bilbo's house in amazement. I vaguely remembered Cassie telling me about how hobbits live in little houses in hills, but this was incredible. There was literally a round, green door in a grassy hill.

I found it hard to comprehend, to be honest.

When I realised that Kili and Fili had kept walking, I hurried to catch up.

"Thought we'd almost lost you for a second there." Fili said once I had caught up.

"You know, you shouldn't wander off by yourself while we're here." Kili piped in. "Hobbits are usually not very welcoming."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, confused. "Bilbo has been-"

"There are always exceptions to rules." Fili interrupted. "Kili here is the exception for dwarves, seeing as he's beardless." Kili glared at his brother. "You would be too actually, considering your lack of a beard."

"So you should stick close." Kili said after looking away from Fili. "We wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"You're lying." I argued. "You are," they stared at me, completely serious, "…aren't you?

They shook their heads. My eyes widened in shock. I was sure hobbits were all good guys… weren't they? Although I do remember something about Cassie laughing when she told me that a farmer hobbit with a scythe chased after the good guys.

What if hobbits weren't nice people?

My thoughts were cut off when Kili burst into laughter, closely followed by Fili.

"You actually believed us!" Kili exclaimed through his laughter.

"…_What?_" I hissed, glaring at him. Fili had stopped laughing and his eyes had widened a little. Kili, of course, kept chuckling.

"Hobbits are the least likely creature in all of Middle Earth to be dangerous- oh." Kili finally realised just how hard I was glaring at him and stopped laughing. Both of them stared at me in apprehension.

"Bastards!' I snapped before storming away. There was a fork in the road, so I took the right one.

"A lady shouldn't swear!" Fili called out to me in amusement.

"I don't care!"

"You've gone the wrong way!" Kili called out after me.

Freezing in place I spun around and walked across the grass to the other path. The brothers soon caught up to me.

"We're sorry Dani." Kili spoke first.

"Truly, we are. We didn't realise you would be so upset." Fili remarked.

I stopped and turned to look at them. They both looked back with wide, apologetic eyes. They definitely looked contrite.

I glared at them for a few more seconds before erupting in giggles.

"You fell for it!" I smirked.

"So you were never upset?" Kili asked, starting to smile.

"No way! That was a good one, you really got me! Of course, I got you back…"

"We're going to have to watch out for you now." Fili said, teasingly. "We can't have you ruining our jokes."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

We all laughed as we continued down the path. We walked in silence for a while, but it was a comfortable silence. With one brother on either side of me, I was happy.

"You're very good at acting, by the way." Kili stated after a few minutes of walking. "I truly believed you were angry with us."

"Thank you." I had studied drama at high school. It was one of my favourite subjects, but I wasn't going to get into that while I was here. For all I knew, they might not even go to school here.

Arriving at the edge of the little town, the trio turned left to head down a path into a forest. Not too far in, a bunch of ponies were grazing in a clearing. The whole area was green. The tall trees had deep green leaves, the grass was a bright green, green, green, green! It was amazing how many types of green could be in the one place. Of course, the green of the environment really made the ponies with their varying shades of brown stand out. With a grin, I ran to the one closest to me. Lifting my hand, I stroked its brown neck. The pony let out a small whinny and leaned into my hand.

"Whose pony is this?"

"Thorin's." Kili answered, walking over to me. Fili was over at one of the other ponies, tacking them.

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "But it's so… sweet."

"Sweet?" Kili asked, confused.

"Oh! I mean… it's nice. It's cute."

"And Thorin's not?"

"No –I mean, maybe? Look, he's just a bit… intimidating." I blushed.

Kili chuckled. "Yeah, he is a bit. You should have seen him when we were young. He's our uncle, you know."

"Really?" I gaped. Not only did I insult Kili's leader, but it was also his uncle! My blush deepened.

"Yep!" He grinned. "I was terrified of him when I was a child."

"Oi, you two!" Fili shouted at us from across the clearing. "Stop flirting and get on with it! We have a job to do!"

The red that had slowly started to fade from my cheeks came back in full force. Sheer embarrassment flooded my body as I looked away from the dwarves.

"We weren't flirting, we were just talking!" Kili yelled back to his brother. I quickly moved to Thorin's pony and began putting the saddle onto her. Luckily I knew a little about horses, so I knew what I was doing.

"Of course you were flirting! You were both grinning stupidly and she was blushing. All the signs were there!" Fili continued to shout.

"Can we please move on from this topic?" I pleaded. Fili smirked and laughed at us, but complied. We swiftly prepared the ponies with only light conversation as we went.

As we finished, I turned to Kili. "What do we do now?"

"The others should be here soon. We'll just wait here."

I looked around and eventually walked to a rather large tree and sat against it. The brothers followed and sat on either side of me.

"Thorin wants you to ride with one of us, by the way." Fili told me.

"What? Why?" I quickly did another count of the ponies. "There are fourteen ponies. I assume Gandalf has his own horse, so there are enough for all of us to have one. Why don't I get my own?"

"Gandalf seems pretty sure Bilbo will come with us. He wants to keep a pony spare for him." Kili explained. That would make sense. I doubt the book/movie would be called _The Hobbit _if Bilbo was only in the first bit of it.

"Ok, but then why am I sharing with one of you?" Don't get me wrong, I would rather go with one of them, I knew them better. But I was wanting to know why Thorin thought I should.

"We've been told to watch out for you, in a way. Since you have already told us you can't fight, Thorin has told us to make sure you don't die." Kili said, matter-of-factly.

"We're also to teach you a little combat when we get time." Fili said.

"But why do you guys have to do it?" I asked, ignoring the slight turning in my stomach at the thought of learning to fight.

"Didn't ask why. I assume it is because he trusted us to do so." Kili stated proudly.

"I think it was more to give his annoying nephews something to do so they won't cause trouble." Fili remarked. Kili deflated a little.

"Surely I won't be that hard to watch over. You could still, you know… cause trouble." I didn't like seeing Kili look down. I was too used to seeing him smiling.

"Don't worry, we still will." Fili smirked. Again. "We just won't do it too much. We don't want to push poor Uncle Thorin too much."

By the time the rest of the company joined us, we were all laughing. We had been for most of the time we were in the clearing. We sobered up pretty quickly when Thorin gave us a look.

"Mount your ponies. We leave immediately." Thorin commanded.

Kili, Fili and I stood up as the others began adding their personal packs to the ponies before mounting them. I was right when I said Gandalf would have his own horse.

"You can ride with me, if you would like." Kili said to me, smiling again.

I nodded and followed him to a light brown pony. It was so hard to think of them as ponies when they seemed to be so big compared to me. I still wasn't used to being this short.

Kili swiftly climbed onto the pony's back and held out a hand to help me. Grasping it tight, I climbed on behind him, hoping I wouldn't show off my lack of balance again. Fortunately for me, I managed to get on the horse without much difficulty, bringing a smile to my face.

Kili glanced over his shoulder at me and gave me a smirk that was very similar to his brother's. "I was almost expecting you to fall off."

"Ha ha." I said sarcastically. I glared at him, causing him to snigger.

Next thing I knew, we were moving. With a squeak, I grabbed onto the back of Kili's thick jacket, praying I wouldn't fall off. The rather large company of ours was steadily moving through the forest.

We hadn't been travelling for very long before a voice yelled "Wait!"

Bilbo, dressed appropriately for travel, ran after us with the contract in his hand.

It looks like the hobbit was coming with us after all.

* * *

**I'M SO SO SORRY! **

**I know this is late and I was supposed to have it out like a week ago, I just couldn't seem to write this one. School just started, so I probably won't be able to update within a couple of days like the first few chapters, but I will have the next chapter out soon!**

**Thanks for all the reviews/alerts/favourites! You guys are the reason I want to keep writing this story!**

_**Sorry about the mix up if you get two alerts. Something went wrong so I took the chapter down and re-uploaded it.**_


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